The dispatcher turned back engines and trucks, saying, "Per 712, you can return to quarters. Sufficient personnel on board."

At 8:57 p.m., the first Long Ridge unit, 71, arrived at Deep Valley Trail and radioed the dispatcher: "On the scene, chimney fire. ... the roof is on fire also."

"OK," the dispatcher replied. "Would you like your tones put out again for a working fire?"

Unit 71 answers, "Yeah ... put 'em out, put the tones out."

"Fire dispatch to all Long Ridge units," the dispatcher radioed. "You have a working fire, a working fire at 68 Deep Valley Trail, a chimney and a roof." Then he again radioed the assistant chief.

"Dispatch to 712."

"On the scene," Nau replied.

"Would you like me to start out the city units again?" the dispatcher said.

"Yeah, put 'em back out," Nau said.

At 9:08 p.m., more than 18 minutes after the first call, units from Turn of River and Stamford Fire & Rescue arrived at 68 Deep Valley Trail, a mansion where fire spread from the chimney to the attic and through the roof. Damage was extensive, and the house, assessed at $1.7 million, may have to be rebuilt.

No one can know whether the outcome would have been different if Nau had not canceled the automatic aid that was on its way: two Stamford Fire & Rescue engines and a Turn of River engine, ladder truck and tanker truck.

It's not clear from a Stamford Fire & Rescue incident report how much sooner the units would have arrived if they had not been turned back.

Engine 8, for example, was en route to Deep Valley Trail at 8:51 p.m., was recalled at 8:53 p.m., hit the road again at 9 p.m. and arrived at 9:08 p.m. Assuming that, since the second trip took 8 minutes, the first trip would have taken 8 minutes, Engine 8 perhaps could have arrived at 8:59 p.m. instead of 9:08 p.m.

Experts say a fire doubles in size every minute.

Asked whether it's protocol to cancel backup units before arriving at a fire, Long Ridge Chief Robert Bennett said Thursday he had no comment.

Stamford Fire & Rescue Chief Robert McGrath answered by e-mail: "It is not protocol for Stamford Fire & Rescue to call off responding units. The first responding unit arrives and does a complete size-up of the situation and investigates, (and) reports his or her findings to the incident commander and fire dispatch."

Nau so far isn't saying publicly why he chose to have his department handle the call alone, before anyone saw what the fire looked like.

But because Nau is a volunteer and he canceled units from the paid department, there is doubt, suspicion and distrust.

And another fight over fire service is sparked in Stamford.

Feuding goes back more than a decade and arises from a complex system made up of a paid, unionized city department; volunteer departments that rely on paid firefighters for staffing; and all-volunteer departments.

"As long as this controversy exists, people will not be confident in our system," Pavia said. "Whether it's a brush fire, an ash-tray fire, a house fire, there always will be second-guessing. ... Standardized responses are critical."

A plan to do that is set to be released this week.

"It's not going to be, `OK, does everybody like this?' It's going to be, `This is the way it's going to be.' That's the only way to resolve it," Pavia said. "Will the volunteers be 100 percent happy? No. Will the city be 100 percent happy? No. Will the union? I don't think so. But, given the legal constraints and Charter constraints and everything else we have to deal with, it's a pretty good plan that will achieve one thing, the most important thing: reliable fire service citywide."

After fire wrecked another North Stamford home in October 2008, the city hired a consultant to examine what happened. The consultant found there was confusion, delay in establishing command, delay in calling for backup, delay in establishing a water supply, and that, 12 minutes into the blaze, only three firefighters were there.

"This is it," Pavia said. "Enough of the nonsense."

Angela Carella can be reached at angela.carella@scni.com or 203-964-2296. Her column runs Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.